Stocks: Local index cracks its first 1,000

ROCKFORD — The Star 60 stock index finished November above 1,000 for the first time in its 25-year history.

The Register Star created the index in 1988 to track publicly traded companies important to the local economy. It includes such major local employers as United Technologies, Woodward Inc., Mondelez International in Rockford and Loves Park, and Titan International in Freeport.

The index fell severely in the Great Recession, closing February 2009 at 447.2. It’s been on a steady and sometimes spectacular rise ever since.

In March, the index closed at 890.1, finally eclipsing the prerecession high of 875.2 at the end of October 2007. At the end of trading in November, the index was at 1,005.9.

Of course, November was a record month for most stock indexes.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average crossed 16,000 last month for the first time, while the S&P 500 pushed past the 1,800 level. The Nasdaq topped 4,000, marking the first time the tech-heavy index got that high since March 2000, when the tech bubble burst.